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Q: What jobs are currently available and how do I apply?
A: All current openings can be found at our online at: https://employmment.marquette.edu. You must apply online through the Employment @Marquette site, attaching a cover letter and/or resume if required. Please do not send cover letters or resumes to the Human Resources department.
The Human Resources Department has computer kiosks available to use for applying on our careers site. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. The office is located at:
915 W. Wisconsin Ave
David Straz Tower, Room 185
Phone: 414-288-7305 | Fax: 414-288-7425
A: All faculty and non-faculty vacancies are posted on the Employment@Marquette website.
Q: What do I do if I forgot my password?
A: Go to the login screen and click I forgot my password. You will be prompted for your username and asked to answer the security questions you answered when setting up your job application account. If you need further assistance, contact us at 414-288-7305.
Q: Can I apply for more than one opening?
A: You may attach an application to as many openings as you'd like. You simply need to view each position that you wish to apply for and then attach your application to the specific opening.
Q: Can I apply directly with the hiring department?
A: No. Applicants are required to apply through the Employment@Marquette website. This is the central point for all job vacancies.
Q: How long will the selection process take?
A: The selection process can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months. The timeframe will vary based on a number of factors. Applicants who are selected for an interview will be contacted via phone and/or email. You can check the status of the positions that you applied to by logging into the Employment@Marquette website.
Q: Can I apply for jobs on the telephone, fax or by email?
A: No. Applicants are required to use the Employment@Marquette system.
Q: Can I go back and edit my application after I have submitted it for an opening?
A: Applications cannot be edited once they have been submitted to a particular opening. However, edits can be made at any point before your application is completed.
Q: How can I be sure that my application was properly received online?
A: You will receive a confirmation number at the very end of the application process. You will also receive an email, if an email address is provided when you complete your application.


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Dinner Tonight: Green Tomato Soup with Black Forest Ham Recipe
Your source for quick recipe every single week day.
By this point in the year, my kitchen is usually overflowing with pounds of green tomatoes, which I accept with open arms and then valiantly attempt to find uses for. Though not as triumphant as the first gloriously red tomato of the season, I honestly do look forward to the first few pounds of green tomatoes. First up is usually a round of fried green tomato BLTs, followed by an Indian curry. I've even had good luck with pickled green tomatoes. But that's really about it.
Now I have at least one more great option for this under-loved vegetable. This recipe from Gourmet simmers them with some Black Forest ham and a whole bunch of scallions. The soup is chunky, relatively light, and a great showcase for the green tomato's bracing acidity. The secret weapon is the sour cream, which really pulls everything together, and helps add some much needed body.
- Yield:4 people
- Rated:
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 ounces Black Forest ham, chopped
- 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 pounds green unripe tomatoes, stems discarded, roughly chopped
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Sour cream to serve
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the chopped ham. Stir often, and cook until it is beginning to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic, and bay leaf. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the scallions are very tender, about 6 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, stock, water, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce to simmer. Partially cover and cook until tomatoes are completely tender and, about 20 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf, and season with more salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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PR WINNER OF THE WEEK: "A" (PR PERFECT) to Joan Rivers, who stormed out of a CNN interview while on a publicity tour. Rivers might have expected questions about her latest book, Diary of a Mad Diva, but host Fredricka Whitfield asked instead if Rivers felt she was being mean on her celeb fashion critique show Fashion Police, and why Rivers, an animal rights activist, wore fur on her book cover. Rivers answered for a few minutes before snapping, "You're not the one to interview a person who does humor!" and walking off set. A stunned Whitfield later suggested the walkout was a publicity stunt; the video suggests otherwise. Calculated or not, Rivers won more buzz than she would have for any normal interview.
PR LOSER OF THE WEEK: "F" (FULL FIASCO) to The Daily Mail, which crossed a celebrity gossip line by reporting that George Clooney's future mother-in-law opposed his marriage to Amal Alamuddin on religious grounds. Clooney struck back in an editorial printed by USA Today, saying that the article could inflame religious sentiment against his family. The MailOnline apologized and removed the story from the website, said to average 52 million visitors a month, but not without drawing criticism for the story.
THE PRV "THERE'S NO 'THERE' THERE" AWARD to Robin Thicke, who last week was the subject of embarrassing media attention about a Twitter PR stunt gone awry. #AskThick resulted in a slew of scathing tweets regarding the lyrics to "Blurred Lines," Thicke's worldwide hit regarded by many as misogynistic. The attention continued this week as a humbled, vulnerable Thicke tried to explain his latest album, Paula, an undisguised attempt to win back his estranged wife. Public meltdown, or PR gold? Either way, Thicke is reaping the level of media attention required to support a new album and tour, even if it's the Train Wreck method of PR.


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Established painter, Kim Hovell, collaborated with the artisans at Annapolis Candle to create a one-of-a-kind marriage of art and fragrance. Kim is inspired by the colors and textures of the waterways and beaches of her native Maryland. Most well-known for her abstract oyster paintings and soothing color palette, her work has become a staple in many coastal homes. Combining the bright and briny fragrances of Annapolis Candle and Kim's well-loved art, this collection is designed to bring you just a little closer to the shore.
Interested in joining our brand family? Inquire about wholesale orders here: email@example.com


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Sarah Malinda Clements (1862-1947)
Sarah Malinda Clements was born March 12, 1862 in Berrien County, GA. She was the youngest of 13 children born to David G. Clements and Gincey Sirmans. She was a sister of Levi Jordan Clements, who was the patriarch of the Clements sawmill business at Ray City.
Sarah's parents were pioneer settlers of the area. They were married in Lowndes County, GA on January 1, 1835. Her father came with his parents to Lowndes County about 1832. Her grandfather William Clements and William A. Knight had been neighbors in Wayne County, GA, and her aunt Anne Donald Clements had married Levi J. Knight in 1827. Her mother was Gincey Sirmans, a daughter of Abner Sirmans and Bettie Kirkland. Abner Sirmans, his brothers, and father, Josiah Sirmans, were among the first permanent settlers of Clinch County, GA, having arrived there in 1822. Her aunt Elizabeth "Betsy" Sirmans married Etheldred Dryden Newbern, another pioneer settler of Berrien County.
Sarah's father and both of her grandfathers, fought under the command of their friend and neighbor Levi J. Knight in the Indian Wars of 1836-1838. David G. Clements, William Clements and Abner Sirmans all served with Captain Knight's Independent Company. David Clements was among those who took part in the Battle of Brushy Creek, one of the last real engagements with the Creek Indians in this region.
Soon after marriage, David G. Clements acquired lot of land 406, 10th district, on which he lived and farmed until his death. He was cut into Berrien out of Lowndes County, 1856. In Berrien County, the Clements home place was in the 1144th Georgia Militia District just north of Ray's Mill (now Ray City), GA.
In 1854, Sarah's sister, Elizabeth Clements, married William Gaskins. The Clements were neighbors of William Gaskins, son of Fisher Gaskins. The Gaskins were another of the early pioneer families of Berrien County. William Gaskins came to the area with his father and brothers, John Gaskins and Harmon Gaskins, with their large herds of cattle, about the same time the Knights and Clements were homesteading in the area around Beaverdam Creek (site of present day Ray City, GA).
At the outset of the Civil War, Sarah's father and brother, John C. Clements, answered the call of General Levi J. Knight to form a company of men for Confederate service; their names appear on an 1861 muster roll of the Berrien Minute Men. John C. Clements served with Company K, 29th Georgia Regiment; David G. Clements later appears on the 1864 census of southern men who were excluded from the draft on account of age.
Sarah, born during the Civil War, grew up on her father's farm during the Reconstruction period in Georgia. She attended the local country schools and was educated through the 5th grade. It appears that she lived in her father's home until his death in 1888.
Although Sarah married twice, she was not lucky in love. She did not marry until the age of 36.
In the Census of 1880, 18-year-old Sarah Ann Clements was enumerated by Census taker Lacy Elias Lastinger in her father's household. Also present was Sarah's older sister Mary Ann, to whom she was devoted for life, and their siblings. Next door were Sarah's sister, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Clements, and her husband William Gaskins. Also neighbors were William's niece Mary Evelyn Gaskins and her husband George W. Fender.
On October 26, 1898 Sarah married William J. "Bill Jack" Knight. He was born in 1860, but otherwise little is known of his history. The ceremony was performed by Albert Benjamin Surrency in Berrien County, GA.
Sarah Clements and William J. Knight are enumerated together in the census of 1900 in their Rays Mill home. Sarah's spinster sister, 59-year-old Mary Ann Clements, had also come to live in the Knight household. Sarah's brother, John C. Clements, and his family remained as neighbors, as did George W. Fender.
William and Sarah owned their farm near Ray's Mill free and clear of mortgage. Only one offspring was born of this union, but the child died young.
William J. Knight died on January 22, 1909 at his home near Ray's Mill, GA.
Tifton Gazette
January 29, 1909
Information reached here Monday of the sudden death of Mr. "Bill Jack" Knight, a prominent resident of the Ray's Mill district. Mr. Knight had been slightly indisposed for two or three days. After eating a light supper Friday night as he was sitting at the fireside he suddenly fell over and died. Mr. Knight was fifty years of age and was married about seven years ago to Miss Sarah Clements, of this place. He was laid to rest at the Beaverdam burial grounds. – Milltown News.
The widow Sarah Knight was enumerated (as Sarah Clements) in 1910 with her sister Mary Ann Clements in their home just east of Ray's Mill. They were neighbors of John B. Fountain and Frank Gallagher.
Some time before 1920 Sarah married for a second time, joining in matrimony with James W. Suggs. He was from Dooly County, GA, a son of Malinda "Lynne" Proctor and Wright Suggs.
Sarah and James W. Suggs were enumerated together in the Census of 1920, at their farm on a settlement road near Ray's Mill. Sarah's sister and constant companion, Mary Ann Clements, resided with the Suggs. On adjacent farms were Parnell Knight and Henry D. Bennett.
The 1926 Influenza epidemic reached its peach in Georgia in March; 1926 was the worst flu year since the pandemics of 1918-1919 which had claimed 675,000 lives in the U.S. and more than 30 million worldwide. Sarah's sister, Mary Ann Clements, at the age of 86, succumbed to Influenza, dying on March 26, 1926. She was attended by her nephew, Dr. Henry W. Clements, who was a son of Rowena Patten and Levi J. Clements. She was buried at Empire Church Cemetery.
Sometime between 1920 and 1930 James W. Suggs died, leaving Sarah widowed for the second time. Sarah, now on her own, boarded in the farm home of Sherrod Winfield Fender and his wife, Lula Bell Smith. Sherrod was a son of George W. Fender, and a neighbor of Henry Studstill, Arrin H. Guthrie, and Phil McGowan. Also lodging in the Fender household was Chester Nobles.
Sherrod W. Fender died in 1931, but Sarah continued to live with the widowed Lula Smith Fender. The 1940 census shows Sarah Suggs enumerated as a "companion" of Lula Fender.
Sarah Malinda Clements Suggs died April 8, 1947. She was buried at New Ramah Cemetery at Ray City, GA. (Lula Fender was a member of the New Ramah Primitive Baptist Church.)


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Rex Ryan has career advice for brother Rob: 'Get a haircut'
Rob Ryan isn't an NFL head coach because ... his hair? That's one theory making the round, and it's a theory that makes sens to Rob's twin brother, Rex, the clean-shaven coach of the Jets.
Rex told reporters at the Senior Bowl this week that Rob's flowing locks might be a turn-off to those who do the hiring. In Rex's mind, It certainly can't be because of his work as the Saints' defensive coordinator.
MORE: Gase says no to Browns | Senior Bowl coverage | NFL's new head coaches
"You tell me one other reason why he doesn't have a (head-coaching job) right now with the kind of job he did," Rex said, according to the New York Post. "Maybe that's it. I told him, 'Dude, how about you go get a haircut? It makes no difference.' I said, 'You can wear the Fu Manchu (mustache/goatee) if you're bald.'
"I can't explain it. Is it the hair? I don't know. I'm trying to get him to get a haircut. Hopefully, this is one of the things that motivates him to do so."
The only open head coach position right now is in Cleveland, one of Rob's many stops in his coaching career. Would he really ditch the trademark 'do to go back there?


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THURSDAY, Nov. 15, 2012 (HealthDay News) -- If you want to save money, it might be a good idea to ask for new bills when you make a bank withdrawal, a new study suggests.
Canadian researchers found that many people find worn paper bills disgusting and will spend more to get rid of them, but are more likely to hold on to crisp new bills.
Study authors Fabrizio Di Muro, of the University of Winnipeg, and Theodore Noseworthy, of the University of Guelph, conducted a series of experiments in which people were given either worn or new bills and asked to complete a series of shopping tasks. The participants tended to spend more when they had worn bills than when they had new bills.
The study participants also were more likely to break a worn larger bill than pay the exact amount in new bills, according to the study, which was released online in advance of print publication in the Journal of Consumer Research.
The participants, however, tended to spend the new bills when they thought they were being watched, the investigators found.
"The physical appearance of money can alter spending behavior," Di Muro and Noseworthy wrote. "Consumers tend to infer that worn bills are used and contaminated, whereas crisp bills give them a sense of pride in owning bills that can be spent around others."
"Money may be as much a vehicle for social utility as it is for economic utility," the authors concluded. "We tend to regard currency as a means to consumption and not as a product itself, but money is actually subject to the same inferences and biases as the products it can buy."
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes how to wash your hands after handling money.


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Governments must play more active role in support of smallholder farmers to ensure they become productive enough to help feed growing global population, FAO says
June 1, 2012
(press release)
– Governments need to play a more active role in support of smallholders if they are to become productive enough to help feed a growing world population.
The world needs to produce 60 percent more food to feed more than nine billion people by 2050 and there is broad agreement that smallholders will provide much of the extra food.
"Smallholders cannot continue to be seen as part of the hunger problem. They are an important part of the solution and are crucial to promote sustainable agriculture and management of our natural resources," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva opening this week session's of the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP).
Public sector policy
According to a report discussed at the Committee this week, an improved understanding is imperative in identifying public sector policy interventions to enhance smallholder participation in markets.
Key elements determining whether and to what degree smallholders entered the market as sellers were the ability to use assets productively, efficient infrastructure and accessible markets, the report noted.
For semi-subsistence producers, particularly those in remote locations, facilitating participation in local markets could be a first step.
Offsetting risks
In other cases, government actions could include offsetting risks to potential investors; temporary public subsidies for inputs such as seeds and fertilizer; facilitating provision of credit to farmers in remote areas; support to producers in meeting more rigorous commercial standards; and the promotion of public-private partnerships in the provision of market infrastructure.
FAO could help member countries determine the best policies open to them by improving understanding of their smallholders' market participation, sensitizing stakeholders to the various options before them and building their capacity to identify, formulate and implement the most appropriate interventions.
The Committee underscored the need to identify more closely the constraints preventing smallholders from integrating more closely into the market. Policies and strategies to support smallholder integration into markets and value chains constitute a priority for the CCP, the Committee added.
* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.


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Since 3D re-releases seem to be all the rage these days (thanks to The Lion King), we'll soon get the opportunity to re-watch some fan favorites in theaters. Disney has a full slate of 3D re-releases planned, including Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid, and now comes word that dinosaurs will once again terrorize movie theaters, though this time it'll be in three dimensions. Variety's Jeff Sneider reports that Jurassic Park is set for a 3D re-release on July 19th, 2013. That weekend is currently only home to the DreamWorks Animation film Turbo, but it's also a couple weeks after Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse hits theaters.
Steve (the Collider one) spoke with producer Kathleen Kennedy about the possible 3D re-release of Jurassic Park back in December. At the time she said they only wanted to do the 3D conversion if they could do it right, with Kennedy clarifying that that means Spielberg and director of photography Janusz Kaminski would be sitting down and evaluating the film frame-by-frame. Hit the jump to see what else she had to say about Jurassic Park's 3D conversion.
It should be noted that the director of photography on Jurassic Park was Dean Cundey, but Kaminski has been Spielberg's collaborator for years so it's possible he'd be the one sitting down with Spielberg. Kennedy explained the importance of having the cinematographer sit down with the director for the 3D post-conversion:
"I'm not a huge proponent of post-conversion, but I think if the filmmaker gets intricately involved in the post-conversion—it's not just a technological exercise—then I think it can be really, really good and I think Jurassic Park is a perfect example of a movie that could work really, really well as a 3D picture…I also think it's tricky because unless you framed the movie with [3D] in mind, not all those shots—quick cutting, that kind of thing—it's not necessarily going to translate, and so that's why you've gotta have the DP and you've gotta have the director frame-by-frame involved in the process of that conversion."
In essence, this means that Universal must have signed off on Spielberg being hands-on in the post-conversion of Jurassic Park. This is incredibly reassuring, as we'll not only know that Jurassic Park 3D has the Steven Spielberg seal of approval, but also that Spielberg was intricately involved in the conversion process. Now, ready the kid inside of you for a stupendous experience at the movies next July.


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Andrew Hughes of the South Bend Tribune gave South Bend Civic Theatre's production of Almost, Maine a nice preview article on Friday. Unfortunately, the piece won't be available in the archives for long before you have to pay per view. Here's the link for now. If you've had the chance to see it, don't forget to submit a review online at ArtsEverywhere.
And if you're still wondering whether or not it's something you want to see, Marcia Fulmer — formerly of the Elkhart Truth — seemed to enjoy what we presented over the weekend. Ms. Fulmer's opinion has been one I've trusted in the past, and her more recent reviews can be found here.


text: The purified protein derivative is an antigen (a substance that stimulates the immune system to eliminate or fight foreign substances in the body), which is injected under the skin in the forearem. After 48 to 72 hours the injection site is evaluated by a physician. This skin test helps determine if a person has ever been infected by the microorganism that causes tuberculosis.


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Red, White & Blue Clafoutis
I am aware that the holiday has passed…but let's be honest…I'm always a little late to the party in this respect. I'd like to think it is because I am too busy enjoying the moment to post recipes prior to an actual holiday or event. Come to think of it…I would be awful working at a monthly magazine or for a fashion designer…having to always think a couple of months ahead. I digress.
Here's hoping you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration. I did not spot a single fireworks display…most of the west is currently on fire so many cities were erring on the conservative side. However, I did spend the evening at the Oakley Rodeo!
What follows is one of my favorite desserts to make…it's light, delicious, totally adaptable to whatever fruit may be in season and therefore appropriate for all times of year and it is quick to make. I first learned to make this here and it is traditionally made with cherries with their pits still in them. I also weigh the dry ingredients and use the metric measurements as it just seems to come out better.
Red, White & Blue Clafoutis
100 grams sugar (2/3 cup±)
120 grams flour (1 cup±)
3 eggs
200 ml milk, lukewarm (1 cup±)
50 ml cream (¼ cup±)
5 grams baking powder (1 tsp.)
1-2 handfuls of blueberries and raspberries (or your choice of fruit – pears, plums, peaches, cherries, etc.)
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (160ºC).
Butter and lightly sugar a heavy tart pan or dish and then chill.
Place fruit in a single layer in the chilled and sugared dish. The exact quantity of fruit is up to you, but pieces of fruit should not touch.
Weigh the dry ingredients (I made extra batter (1 and 1/3 recipes worth) for an additional individual clafoutis that never made the photographic cut) and mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Pour the batter into the dish very slowly and gently, taking care not to displace or move the berries too much.
Bake for 40 minutes until just barely beginning to brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature, plain or garnished with powdered sugar, fruit coulis, or whipped cream with a sprig of fresh mint.
I could seriously eat the entire thing all by myself!
What are your favorite summer desserts?


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Hello, my Light-wielding brethren. Let me start off by saying that all of this information applies to patch 4.2 and the current state of retribution paladins. In future patches, this information may become outdated. Use your own Judgement when reading. Some side effects may include increases of a few thousand DPS on target dummies and an overall feeling of ecstasy. Working as intended.
After my last article, I got a few emails asking basic questions about retribution paladins and how to play them. I get questions like What's my rotation?, How is your damage so high?, and Why do you keep pulling aggro? pretty frequently. When I'm not trying to convince my guild it's the tank's fault I'm pulling aggro (even though it isn't), I try to explain to people that the key to doing good damage nowadays comes mainly from cooldown management, much like a lot of other classes -- but I'm not writing about mages or warriors here.


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Pope Confirms Faith Encyclical Nearly Done
Pope Francis also stressed the need for the Church to address the crisis of the family.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis put aside his prepared remarks and told members of the Synod of Bishops that the encyclical on faith is almost ready and the exhortation on evangelization will be finished before the Year of Faith is over.
"Now the fourhand encyclical should be released, which Pope Benedict XVI had begun," Pope Francis said June 13.
"He handed it to me; it is an intense document," he told the bishops.
"He has been the one to do the great work," he added.
Pope Francis made his comments during a meeting with 25 members of the Synod of Bishops on June 13 in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
The group gathered in Rome to help him choose the theme of their next general assembly, which will take place in 2015.
"I thought that the Year of Faith should not end without a nice document that can help us," said Pope Francis, referring to the exhortation from the New Evangelization Synod that was held in October 2012.
"I thought about this, an exhortation on evangelization," he said.
The Pope issues post-synodal exhortations after a synod is held. The documents are the fruit of the discussion and prayer that takes place during the gathering, combined with the unique contributions of the Holy Father.
"I liked the idea, and I will take that road," Pope Francis said of the synod. "I have written something, and, in August, I'll be more relaxed, and I will be able to do something more at home and advance in it."
During his off-the-cuff discussion with the bishops, he also stressed the need to recover a "sane vision of the family" and a healthy anthropology.
He said the crisis of the family is "a serious problem" and "needs to be addressed by the Church's pastors" and teachers in cooperation.


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Fox Business just had Ford's Scott Monty on, and Liz Claman showed us exactly the problem we warned about Friday. You can't find Ford on Twitter. Monty, predictably, told her how to find Ford.
The self-promotional Scott Monty showed Claman she could find Ford by way of... himself! Who knew ScottMoCo was the new FoMoCo?
Now Monty just needs to explain to everyone who ever has been or ever will be interested in Ford Motor Company that they can find Ford on Twitter by way of a search for "Scott Monty." And I'm sure he'll relish every moment of it.
We hope Ford will soon learn on their own to fish the social media waters rather than have over-paid "gurus" like Monty divining the "secrets" for them.


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In a world focused on faster, better and cheaper, a well timed pause may produce better decisions.
In contrast to the slow food movement, whose advocates say it's an idea whose time has come, slow government has no advocates because slowness has long been seen as the problem to be fixed. Advocates of government reform and innovation often tout variations of better, faster and cheaper in making their cases for change. Better can be hard to measure, cheaper can be hard to realize, but faster is always an improvement.
Even when technology is used to speed up old, tired, unreformed processes, we call it paving the cow path. Suboptimal to be sure, but still better than slow, right? If there is a copy of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink on your bookshelf, you respond as Tevye (the affable milkman in Fiddler on the Roof) would: "Of course, right." Seen this way, instinct is pitted against intellect in decision-making, and the difference between brilliance and incompetence is the speed at which decisions are made.
But perhaps our speed fixation is itself a rush to judgment. In a trilogy of books drawn from research on hundreds of companies — Good to Great, Built to Last and Great by Choice — Jim Collins has long emphasized taking the long view: "Faith in the end game helps you live through the months or years of buildup."
The buildup is too much for some people. Early in my public service career, a private-sector member of the state technology oversight board quit in frustration, writing," We made some progress but the inertia was considerable."
Frank Partnoy thinks that well timed inertia may not be all bad. He is a law and finance professor at the University of San Diego and author of Wait: The Art and Science of Delay. Based on a fresh read of thousands of research studies, Partnoy argues that procrastination or what he prefers to call "managing delay" in a rapidly changing and complex world can actually help with decision-making.
A well timed pause helps make a person or organization more aware of their limitations and opportunities. Partnoy may have identified the underappreciated genius of what is often a frustrating political process, demonstrating that many decisions are better for having "being made at the last possible moment." The people at the top of their game in almost any area of life, who Partnoy calls "delay specialists," distinguish themselves as rock stars by knowing how long they can afford to "delay before committing is at the heart of many a great decision."
He argues that's true even — or especially — when there is a time crunch. The experience of trading from what worked to increase transaction speeds only to back off later illustrates the point: "It was the oddest thing. In a world that values speed so much, you could be slower, yet still be better."
None of this is to give bureaucracies a pass for getting bogged down in endless cycles of phone calls about meetings and meetings about phone calls, or excuse bad actors for obstructing progress, but it does give some hope for the slow and deliberate pace of government.
Partnoy calls on organizations to "devote themselves to the long haul, and the long haul means years and years and years before they'll have true innovation." It's a dynamic that northwest pioneer and missionary Marcus Whitman understood. His statue stands at the entrance of the Washington state Capitol and is inscribed: "My plans require time and distance." And such is the defining attribute of innovation at the speed of government, then and now.
Looking for the latest gov tech news as it happens? Subscribe to GT newsletters.


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Despite being one of the sexy-funniest actresses in Hollywood, Elizabeth Banks continues to rack up the dramatic roles, having most recently added Sam Worthington to her dance card.
Banks will star as an NYPD crisis negotiator in "Man on a Ledge," reported Deadline. The film co-stars Worthington in the title role, a suicidal cop who's been falsely accused of a crime.
The film co-star Jamie Bell as Worthington's brother, who just so happens to be planning a jewelry heist to take place -- wait for it -- right across the street from the building from which Worthington is threatening to jump. And poor Anthony Mackie is relegated to playing Worthington's ex-partner.
U.S. & World
Interestingly, the script was written by Pablo Fejves, the man who lived next door to OJ Simpson's wife a the time of her murder and was the witness who during testimony in the subsequent trial described a dog's barking on that fateful night as "a plaintive wail."
Banks will next be seen starring opposite Russell Crowe in "The Next Days," about a man who will do anything to get his wife out of prison. Worthington will be starring alongside Keira Knightley in "Last Night," about a married couple converted by temptation during a night apart, and in "The Debt," about three Israeli agents who must clean up a mess they left behind some 30 years ago.


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Syrian warplanes bomb town next to Turkish border
[Al Ahram] Syrian warplanes bombed the town of Azaz close to the Turkish border on Sunday, destroying at least five homes, causing hundreds of people to flee and stirring panic at a Syrian refugee camp just inside Turkey, Turkish officials said.
Most of the bombs hit the centre of Azaz, around three kilometres (two miles) from the Turkish border in an area dominated by Syrian rebels, but at least one landed 500 metres from Turkish soil, one official said.
"It is very close to the Turkish border ... There was also some bombing in the centre of Azaz. Around 500 people were trying to come into Turkey," he said.
Asked if there had been any response from the Turkish military, which has frequently scrambled fighter jets along the border and fired back in kind when stray Syrian shells hit its soil, the official said: "Not yet."
Explosions could be heard several kilometres inside Turkish territory, unnerving people in a refugee camp in the Turkish town of Kilis where some fear they could still be a target of Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's forces.
"The Assad warplanes followed the refugees ... They fired rockets and people were very scared, they felt they would be massacred," a Syrian rebel fighter told
after speaking to his brother inside the camp.
Turkey is loath to be drawn into a regional conflict but frequent proximity of Syrian air raids to the border is testing its pledge to defend itself from any violation of its territory or any spillover of violence from Syria.
Posted by: Fred 2012-12-17


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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
Can sleet, snow, and ice keep them away? Will Obama surge in the polls after appearing with the woman who seems to have a golden touch? Just how powerful will the Oprah Effect really be? These are just a few of the questions that those of us in the media will try to answer this weekend while chasing after Obama and Oprah through Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire.
In order to understand just how many people Oprah could reach and perhaps influence, NBC News contacted Nielsen to get ratings and demographic information on just who watches Oprah Winfrey nationally, and also in the early states of Iowa and South Carolina. Since New Hampshire is included in the Boston media market, an accurate picture of just how many people watch Oprah in the Granite State could not be drawn.
Oprah's audience is predominantly female, white, and over the age of 55. Nationally 7.4 million people watch Oprah daily -- about 2.6% of American households. Four percent of American women (about 5.7 million) watch her daily, compared with 1.2% of men (1.7 million people). Overall, 2% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watch Oprah.
Oprah has the highest ratings among older Americans -– a critical caucusing or voting block. 3.7 million people age 55 and older watch Oprah, and 2.7 million of these individuals are women. Eleven percent of all older black women watch Oprah, and 7% of all older white women watch the show everyday.
Oprah's audience is also predominantly white: 5.9 million of whites watch Oprah, compared with 1.4 million blacks. Her reach among the Hispanic population is tiny -- only about 230,000 Hispanics watch the show daily.
But what about in the early primary states? Across Iowa's four major media markets, 56,000 households watch Oprah everyday. In the Des Moines/Ames media market, 32,000 of 407,000 (or 7.7%) of all households in the Des Moines area have Oprah playing on their TV sets between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm every day. To put that number in context, consider that only about 150,000 people in the state caucused in the last primary.
In the Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque media market, 18,000 of 339,000 households in the area (5.4%) watch Oprah.
Both the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines markets reflect the largest concentration of people and Democrats in Iowa. Across other parts of the state, 5.9% of homes in the Sioux City area watch Oprah and in Davenport and Moline in the eastern part of the state, 4.6% of homes watch the show.
In South Carolina, Oprah is even more popular. In the Columbia area, where Oprah and Obama will appear together on Sunday afternoon at an 80,000 seat arena, 30,000 households have the channel set to the Oprah Winfrey show daily. That's about 8% of the 384,000 households in the area.


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National Louis University strives to achieve a diverse and inclusive community where every person is given the opportunity to be heard, respected, valued and welcomed.
The University recognizes that diversity defines our individual and group lives. All members of the NLU community are expected to actively build a university environment enriched by contributions from diverse experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. Diversity, inclusion and social justice are key components of the University's mission of access, innovation and excellence.
Recognizing that it is difficult to have an all-inclusive list, we acknowledge the importance of these and all other aspects of diversity: ability, age, economic status, educational level, gender, national origin, language, political affiliation, professional status, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation.


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Friday 25 January
The dor beetle, for many people, is the archetypal 'beetle'. It has the classic beetle shape and colouration, being oval in shape with a shiny domed body, with a blue sheen. The thorax is smooth but the wing cases are grooved longitudinally. The legs are also shiny black and strong with noticeable spikes. The head is small and the antennae short with fan-like tips. The dor beetle, more popularly known as the dung beetle, belongs to a sub-family called scarabs. These beetles were regarded as sacred by the ancient Egyptians.
The man whom has come to be most closely associated with the study of the dor beetle was the French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre (1823 – 1915). Fabre was an amateur with no formal scientific training, but he was fascinated by insects and their behaviour. His books were readable and his enthusiastic style of writing made them very popular. He is regarded to this day as one of the most influential people in the study of insects.
Anyone who has ever examined a cowpat will probably have noticed a patchwork of holes beneath it. These holes are made by the adult beetles burrowing down into the soil, taking with them particles of dung as food supplies for their larvae. Animal dung is rich in nutrient and dung beetles play an important role in returning much of this material to the soil. Their larvae, in eating much of this plant matter, make it more accessible to bacteria and other soil-living organisms which, in turn, allow the soil to maintain its fertility. In other parts of the world, relatives of the dor beetle make small balls of animal dung, which they roll away to suitable nest sites constructed underground.
Adults are strong fliers and can travel some distance in search of suitable food supplies for their young. Sometimes they turn up in parks and gardens and this is where people are most likely to find them on the ground. The adults are often infested with small copper-coloured mites, a phenomenon that has led to the beetles' folk-name of 'lousy watchman'.
The dor beetle is found throughout most of Europe, Asia and Africa. Similar species occur over most of the temperate and tropical countries.
Dor beetles are found wherever there are grazing herbivores. In temperate latitudes, they can be found in pastures and meadows, open woodland grazed by sheep or cattle, and they occasionally turn up in parks and gardens.
The biggest threat to these beetles is the use of invermectin-based worming treatment for grazing animals. This chemical is used to treat intestinal worms in the animals' gut but persists in their dung when it is deposited on the ground. The ivermectin effectively kills the developing larvae long after it has passed through the larger animal.
Although the dor beetle is not thought to be threatened as a species, they are linked to another animal which is the subject of several conservation projects. Dor beetles and their cousins, the chafers, are the main prey of greater horseshoe bats, a species that has been declining in numbers for many years. The cause of this is believed to be the use of the ivermectin-based wormers used in the intensive rearing of cattle. A reduction in the available insect food has affected greater horseshoe bat populations across the UK, and the bats are now limited to parts of the West Country and South Wales. Conservation projects to restore the fortunes of this mammal include limiting the use of ivermectin treatments and re-creating habitats suitable for the bats. As with so many endangered species, the solution to one problem frequently benefits other associated animals.
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
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Friday 25 January
Friday 05 October
Monday 24 September


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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Review of Investigative Data Mining for Security and Criminal Detection Posted
"I read 'Investigative Data Mining for Security and Criminal Detection' (IDM) after attending the 2003 Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID) conference. Researchers at RAID mentioned "self-organizing maps," "neural networks," "machine learning," and other unfamiliar topics. Mena's book helped me understand these subjects in the context of performing data mining. If you steer clear of the author's discussion of intrusion detection in chapter 10, you'll find IDM enlightening and a little scary."
Data mining is a hot topic. Slashdot discussed neural networks recently, which can be used for data mining.
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Five Years Ago Today...
Just yesterday I was asked how to get into the computer security field. Here's how I did it. I looked at the AFCERT's manning roster for the network security monitoring teams and put myself on the schedule. Wherever I saw an opening -- usually between 2 and 10 pm or 10 pm and 6 am -- I added my name. I sat next to people who seemed to understand the alerts they were analyzing and asked a lot of questions. Six months later I was in charge of the real-time NSM team, and a year later I was in charge of all NSM operations. I wrote my first white paper in late 1999 and spoke at my first SANS conference on 25 Mar 00. Currently I'm writing Real Digital Forensics and The Tao of Network Security Monitoring, both to be published in 2004.
What is BitTorrent?
This Wiki page was more helpful, clueing me in to the fact that BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing system. O'Reilly wrote about this too. I installed the BitTorrent client at degreez and tried it out with the files listed at BitTorrent Files for Slashdot Effect Victims.
I clicked on the Red Hat 9 Binary ISOs link, which points to http://f.scarywater.net/redhat9.torrent. This brought my BitTorrent client up. It prompted me for a location to save the file I would download via BitTorrent, so I selected a directory. Next, I could see the BitTorrent client work its magic.
I plan to experiment with this. I initially tried to retrieve Knoppix 3.3 via BitTorrent, but eventually downloaded it via a fast overseas mirror over HTTP. Update: Here's another example of using BitTorrent -- Slackware 9.1. Linuxtorrents provides several links. Here's a script to run bittorrent in the background on UNIX. There's a great FAQ.
Try Tenable Security's NeVO before 30 Sep 03!
Below is an example of NeVO's output. It's in the .nsr format produced by the active vulnerability assessment tool Nessus, written by Tenable employee Renaud Deraison. For example:
10.1.1.1|27201/tcp|8518|INFO|The remote host is using a version of Portable OpenSSH which may allow an attacker to determine if an account exists or not by a timing analysis.;Solution : Upgrade to OpenSSH-portable 3.6.1p2 or newer;CVE : CAN-2003-0190
10.1.1.1|27201/tcp|8501|INFO|The remote host is running a SSH server :;SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.5p1
10.1.1.1|27201/tcp|8528|REPORT|The remote host is running a version of OpenSSH which is vulnerable to a flaw in the buffer handling functions which may possibly leading to command execution.;Solution : Upgrade to OpenSSH 3.7 or newer
10.2.0.3|161/udp|4582|INFO|The remote host is running an SNMPv1 agent. Having such an agent open to outside access may be used to compromise sensitive information. Certain SNMP agents may be vulnerable to root compromise attacks.
10.2.0.3|161/udp|4500|INFO|The remote host is running an SNMPv1 server that uses a well-known community string - public;Solution : This signature was obtained through direct sniffing of the network, so if possible, migrating systems to SNMP v3 would be more secure. For non-local attacks though, your community string is easily guessed and should be changed to something more random.
10.2.0.123|0/tcp|1|INFO|The remote host OS could not be recognized. Its fingerprint is : 64437:255:1371:1:0:1:1:48
10.2.0.123|0/tcp|8502|INFO|The remote host is running a SSH client: SSH-2.0-PuTTY-Release-0.53b
Notice how NeVO detected SSH running on a port other than 22 TCP -- in this case, 27201 TCP. Service identification on non-standard ports is something I've been interested in finding. (For service active service identification on non-standard ports, try AMAP. NeVO data can be imported into Nessus for easier reading, or imported into a spreadsheet.
This is a great idea. At the very least it could be used to supplement active vulnerability assessment products. Sometimes active VA crashes hosts with weak TCP/IP stacks or other vulnerable services. Passive VA works by observing parties access those stacks or services. It's a great way to collect security data in sensitive environments where no one trusts active VA products. I would argue that hosts should be robust enough to withstand scanning, but it helps to have another option available. This demo version of NeVO expires 1 Oct 03.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Cell Phone Spam
Suggestion for Patching Windows Dial-Up Users
"One way to make things easier for dial-up users, and even broadband users in many cases, would be to issue periodic update CDs. Imagine a disc with all of the updates on it and a program, it could even be written in Windows Script Host, to check a system for which updates need to be installed, apply them in the correct order and even reboot in between. Such a program would not be hard to write.
Microsoft could charge a trivial amount for the discs but it would be better just to give them away and encourage users to pass the discs around when they were done. At that point you'd still need to check Windows Update for recent additions, but it's unlikely you'd have an unbearably long download time...
I recently put this suggestion to Microsoft and their response basically avoided the whole issue. Why wouldn't the company want to offer such a CD, assuming that's the motivation behind their stonewalling?"
"Snort not backdoored, Sourcefire not compromised"
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 20:44:11 -0400
From: Martin Roesch
To: full-disclosure@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Snort-users] Snort not backdoored, Sourcefire not compromised
It's come to my attention that some group is claiming to have broken into a Sourcefire server and backdoored the Snort source code. First things first, there is no backdoor in Snort nor has there ever been, everyone can relax.
A shell server got compromised well over a year ago, but what these guys aren't telling you is that the network that it was on was not only logically separate from the rest of the sourcefire.com domain, it was also physically removed from it too (by about 23 miles, approximately the distance from the Sourcefire office to my basement). Yes, that's right, they busted into a shell server that was maintained on a physically separate network in my basement. That particular machine was maintained as a shell server for various people to log into so that we can have a sacrificial box to use to chat on IRC without having to worry about our real network getting compromised, and it has served its purpose well.
While we do try to keep that system from suffering break-ins, we also realize that many IRC clients aren't exactly the most secure pieces of code in the world and sometimes there are problems in server code as well (like apache and sshd), so we put together servers like that one so that we can interact with people while minimizing the risks to the company's networks and servers. I thought this was fairly standard practice for many security companies, maybe I'm wrong.
If you're wondering "how do you know the code isn't backdoored?", since we know that that server is an "at risk" server we're not in the habit of checking code into CVS from there. If that's not good enough for you, Snort has been through three code audits since March (one Sourcefire internal, two third-party external) and there are most definitively no backdoors in the code, nor were there any.
Hope that clears things up.
BTW, the sample code that they put into their little screed was nothing more than an update of the 'stick' program from 2001, not really anything to get worked up about.
Martin Roesch - Founder/CTO Sourcefire Inc. - (410) 290-1616
Sourcefire: Enterprise-class Intrusion detection built on Snort
email@example.com - http://www.sourcefire.com
Snort: Open Source Network IDS - http://www.snort.org
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Reviews of TCP/IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit, Real 802.11 Security, and Network Performance Toolkit Posted
"As a network security monitoring analyst, I like to read network troubleshooting books. They help me understand protocols I see on the wire, usually using case studies that are far more exciting than reading dry Request For Comment (RFC) documents. "TCP/IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit" (TAATT) isn't a "tool" book like Wiley's "Network Performance Open Source Toolkit." Rather, TAATT tries to explain the operations of many popular protocols. It does a fairly good job, and deserves a look."
From the five star review of Real 802.11 Security: Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i:
"I was somewhat hesitant to read "Real 802.11 Security" (R8S) as it seemed to offer too much theory and background on wireless security. I prefer "getting to the point" and telling me what works and what doesn't. R8S changed my mind. The book's lively style helped me survive fairly heavy discussion of cryptography and implementation of security protocols. The authors remarkable clarity and insights reminded me of Ross Anderson's "Security Engineering," a book I respect highly. I finished R8S with a better idea of the future of wireless security and how to secure existing wireless deployments."
You can visit the authors' university site here.
From the five star review of Network Performance Toolkit: Using Open Source Testing Tools:
"I don't have a lot to say about "Network Performance Open Source Toolkit" (NPOST), other than I think it's excellent. We need more tool-oriented books to teach admins how to do real work on their networks. NPOST delivers chapter after chapter of practical, hands-on material applicable to the networking shop in any organization."
If you're wondering why I don't post more negative reviews these days, remember that I almost exclusively limit myself to books appearing on my reading list. If I post a negative review, it's because a book to which I dedicated time ended up burning me!
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Project to Customize Windows
Verisign -- "The Value of Trust"?
I think this post makes a good case for review of Verisign's actions. This is not how an administrator for the two most important generic top level domains should act!
Thoughts on OpenSSH Vulnerability
We're familiar with the plan -> prevent -> detect -> respond model. We form and practice plans and policies to guide our organizations. We prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities with security strategies like defense-in-depth, access control, least privilege, segmentation, and vulnerability management via proactive assessment and patching. We should perform detection via network security monitoring -- collecting, validating, and escalating event, session, full content, and statistical data. We respond to policy violations and intrusions (unlawful, unacceptable, or unauthorized use of our resources) via containment and mitigation. Is there anything else we can do when a threat to core infrastructure like OpenSSH arises?
Where possible, I think it would be helpful to have redundant systems to perform those critical services. Note that redundant does not mean "identical." Why have an extra Microsoft IIS server ready to replace the one just hacked by an intruder? It's much better to have an Apache server ready to go. (I'd argue it's better to have Apache be the primary and another solution as the back-up.) For DNS, pair BIND and djbdns. For email, run sendmail and postfix.
Where does this leave OpenSSH? Well, today I tried lsh. I had no problem installing it since it lives in the FreeBSD ports tree. While lsh may not be as well-scrutinized or tested as OpenSSH, it's not the vulnerable OpenSSH service waiting to be exploited. How could this be used in a production environment?
- You suspect OpenSSH may be vulnerable. You're running OpenSSH on port 22 TCP (a bad idea in my book -- why not run it somewhere else?) and the lsh daemon on port 222 TCP. Port 222 isn't allowed remotely, while 22 is.
- You make two quick changes to your firewall rules: Disable port 22 TCP inbound and allow port 222 TCP inbound. This quickly removes outsider access to vulnerable services.
- You administer critical systems using lsh (which can be accessed using standard OpenSSH clients) and patch the vulnerable OpenSSH services.
- Once done, disable port 222 TCP access and reinstate port 22 TCP.
The same approach could apply to other services, with modifications. This can be implemented on the client side too. Replace Internet Explorer (30+ unpatched holes and counting) with Mozilla Firebird.
When I was a Boy Scout, my Scoutmaster always asked one question whenever I planned a camping trip or hike: "What's plan B?" Not having alternatives was unacceptable. The security community has got to start devising plan Bs, because people rely on our services and expect them to work.
Monday, September 15, 2003
Good Samaritan Saves Bank's Behind
"Geoff Ellis, a 26-year-old masters student living in North York, purchased the computers last week from Ecosys Canada Inc., a computer asset-management firm in Mississauga. He paid $400 each for two powerful IBM Netfinity servers that would have cost about $5,000 new.
Ellis buys, fixes up and then resells used computer equipment on eBay.com. He had posted the two machines on the popular online auction site for six hours before he noticed, after turning one of them on, that it contained an operating system that let him access file folders from the bank without needing a password.
He immediately removed the items from the Web site, he said."
I bought a handful of servers from eBay a couple months ago. I have since installed new operating systems on each one, but maybe I should have checked to see what was left behind by the previous owners? Market pressure won't change an organization's behavior when it comes to disposing of computers, but perhaps regulation and inspection would make a difference.
RAID News Posted
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Installing a Free X Server on Windows XP
- Download and execute Cygwin setup. The Cygwin/XFree86 User's Guide gives plenty of hand-holding if you need it. I selected all of the XFree86 packages plus OpenSSH. You'll see why OpenSSH was included shortly.
- Once Cygwin has finished installing, start a Cygwin shell, typically via 'C:\cygwin\cygwin.bat'.
- Within the Cygwin shell, start the X server via 'sh /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh' as shown below. You'll see an xterm appear.
- Within the xterm, allow the remote host to connect via X by executing '/usr/X11R6/bin/xhost 10.1.1.1', where 10.1.1.1 is the IP address of the remote host.
- Now use SSH to connect to the remote UNIX system. For example, 'ssh -l username -X 10.1.1.1'. Using the '-X' switch enables X forwarding, if it's not already specified in the SSH configuration file.
- Once connected to the remote UNIX system, send back an xterm by simply executing 'xterm'.
I also sent 'xeyes' back to my system to show the sorts of graphical information that can be transmitted. It's as simple as that! All of the X traffic is sent via the encrypted SSH link, so you don't have to worry about exposing that information to the Internet.
If you're wondering how to upgrade the Cygwin packages already installed, this thread makes it clear that you only need to rerun the Cygwin setup.exe program.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Happenings at TruSecure
Way to Go Mike Fratto
"NIP is not a replacement for firewalls and won't be in the foreseeable future. Why? The fundamental problem is false positives -- the potential to block legitimate traffic. Before you can prevent attacks, you have to detect them, but NIP systems rely on intrusion detection, which is hardly an exact science. A properly configured firewall will allow in only the traffic you want, and you can bet the farm on that. We need to feel this same confidence in IDSs before we can believe in NIP systems, but IDS vendors have employed lots of talented brain cells trying to raise detection accuracy, and they're nowhere close to 100 percent." (emphasis added)
Exactly! How is a firewall doing intrusion detection any better than a non-firewall doing intrusion detection?
Mike continues to raise the clue bar with these insights from NIP Attacks in the Bud:
"Network Associates doesn't let users see what constitutes a signature. When we asked about this, the company said it didn't want to help people develop evasion techniques. The Exploit Alert Detail dialog on the Alert Viewer reveals text matches for a given alert, but that one match could be a subset of all possible matches.
Given time, we could have puzzled out most of the signatures via exhaustive searches, so we think Network Associates is just being difficult. In comparison, NetScreen opens signatures for review and editing--an approach we prefer.
The lack of signature information quickly became frustrating, and it complicated troubleshooting when a match was based on a protocol anomaly because there wasn't enough information to know why a match occurred. We had to send packet traces to Network Associates to determine why an SNMP packet was being detected as a NetBIOS issue. It took a few days, but the company resolved the problem and provided an update to the signatures. Signature updates are automated, but you need to buy a support contract to get them." (emphasis added)
This is exactly the problem with many commercial IDS tools. If an analyst can't independently assess why the IDS generated an alert, she will not trust it and will disregard its warnings. Unfortunately, NWC still gave the NAI product its recommendation.
Incidentally, if you read the article in paper or .pdf check out Mike's new hair-do. Holy flowing mane, Batman! I wish I could manage that. :)
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
RAID Conference Concludes
This was my first RAID conference, and I took several pages of notes on what IDS researchers are doing. The conference began with a presentation by Richard Clarke. Some of his more interesting points included:
- He confirmed US DoD networks have indeed suffered worms and/or viruses on "classified networks." He also stated "one ugly fact... every network I know of has been penetrated -- recently and regularly," with the exceptions being one or two classified government networks. However, he "[hasn't] seen cyberterrorism yet," although he has seen "nation states doing reconnaissance" against each other and thinks the recent DNS attacks may have been nation state activities. I asked him about structured threats like organized crime, and Clarke replied he's more worried about nation states performing targeted attacks.
- He claimed the northeast blackout which seems to have started in Ohio was "remarkably similar" to tests done by DoD red teams. Ohio power workers claim their displays reported normal status while the system failed. DoD red teams take similar approaches. A cybersecurity taskforce is now part of the blackout investigation. Two days before the blackout, power companies (through the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) adopted new security guidelines." Others are issuing warnings.
- Clarke believes if the US Congress or EU tries to legislate security, "it won't work." Government will destroy the Internet if it tries to take it over to protect "critical infrastructure." His reference to Terminator 3 was apt: "People need machines. People take critical infrastructure for granted until it fails. Machines fail when subjected to malicious code."
- Answering a question on poor code, he said "why is their software so shitty... because they can" [sell lousy software]. He believes big companies should band together to create a software assurance standard along the lines of the Underwriters Laboratory. He recomends the creation of a "patch management center" which offers testing of new patches to prevent redundant testing on vanilla systems throughout industry. Clarke is researching security standards for the Business Roundtable and has found 27 thus far -- too many!
- Clarke shared stories about ELIGIBLE RECEIVER, an exercise in 1997 to test information infrastructure, particularly in the Pentagon. Although the exercise was scheduled for a week, Clarke claimed that by Tuesday the National Military Command Center was compromised and the exercise was stopped early on Wednesday. As a consequence then US Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre told every military service to deploy intrusion detection systems (IDS), which was one of the reasons we saw a huge surge in sensor installations in the AFCERT around that time.
- Whereas the problems with IDS used to be not enough data on intrusions, now the mindset involves "dumping alerts into databases." In 2002 Clarke said the Internal Revenue Service and Veteran's Administration decided to pool their IDS data and mine it for trends.
- Clarke named three IDS weaknesses: (1) insiders, who according to an upcoming Secret Service survey, are causing a "vast number" of American companies to lose money; (2) virtual private networks, which allowed a vector for a "business-to-business" customer of Bank of America to infect it with the Slammer worm; and (3) wireless, where IDS coverage is lacking.
- He's counter 127 companies which sell IDS products, with lots of venture capital still available for security. Unfortunately, CIOs think the IDS vs. Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) debate is "silly." Furthermore, CIOs are questioning their security spending, saying "no matter what I do, I'm still owned." Why spend more money if nothing works? Clarke believes the future lies with "self-healing networks" which function regardless of compromise.
Richard Stiennon of Gartner, formerly a consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, spoke as well. He was a nice enough guy but I don't think his arguments hold water, and I wasn't impressed to hear him he disabled his own laptop by installing a spyware cleaner! Here are some of his main points, either printed on his slides or spoken:
- "Gateways and firewalls are finally plugging the holes... we are winning the arms race with hackers... the IDS is at the end of life." He "recommends delaying large investments in IDS and event management, piloting application defense and network IPS products, and locking down access control."
- His vision of "defense in depth" includes: firewalls -> vulnerability assessment or management -> network intrusion prevention (separate from the firewall) -> host intrusion prevention -> antivirus -> security management. This vision is based on conclusions gained from "talking to users," since he doesn't have a product test lab!
- A "deep packet (or stream) inspection firewall assembles (normalizes) packets and inspects them for compliance with a set of rules." "Rule classes" could include "attack signature, protocol anomaly, behavior, antivirus, or custom content inspection."
- Stiennon claimed that IDS offers "mountains of data, hours of labor, heaps of alerts, false positives [and] IR nightmares," while the "security nirvana" of IPS will "drop protocol attacks, block known attacks, [and spend] less time tracking down what happened."
- He named Cisco (who bought Okena), ISS, Enterasys, NFR, Symantec, Intrusion, Tripwire, Lancope, and Arbor Networks within the IDS market, and Tipping Point, NetScreen (via purchasing OneSecure), and Network Associates (via purchasing Intruvert and Entercept) as IPS vendors. He noted Tipping Point complained to Gartner it wasn't "getting its message out," and I found that the company declined .pdf an award nomination in the IDS category from Network Computing Magazine. That's staying on message!
- Beyond IDS and IPS, Stiennon made interesting insights into the strenghts of content switching vendors F5, Radware, Cisco, and Blue Coat, which already does content inspection. The other vendors only need to add more security content inspection to their products to cause headaches for more traditional security vendors. On the application defense side, Stiennon mentioned Netcontinuum, Teros, Sanctum, KaVaDo, Ingrian, and Array Networks.
- Vendors offer security event management products include GuardedNet, ArcSight, E-Security, Intellitactics, and NetForensics, the most inaptly named security company I kn ow.
- I asked him where the "magic" comes from that makes modern firewalls perform the intrusion detection functions he says are failing. His answer was not satisfactory. Earlier he talked of Checkpoint adding INSPECT code for Snort signatures into the firewall's kernel.
Once the invited guests were done, the conference turned to papers. Some of the researchers I met were unhappy that many of the papers weren't "science" or "research," but "engineering" and "applied research." They preferred to see papers with little or no practical application. This was a new concept to me. Apparently the downturn in the tech economy has left most commercial research labs, particularly IBM Research doing less "pure research" and more "solutions to problems."
- One of the most interesting talks was by Philip Chan of Florida Institute of Technology, titled "An Analysis of the 1999 DARPA/Lincoln Laboratory Evaluation Data for Network Anomaly
Detection" (.pdf). He criticized the 1999 DARPA Intrusion Detection Evaluation Data Set. Apparently getting access to data to run through their algorithms and code is a huge problem. Dr. Chan analyzed the popular IDEVAL data to show its weaknesses and proposed some solutions.
- Vern Paxson participating in a panel discussion on worm/virus propagation and asked "doesn't anyone read the literature?" In other words, why isn't malicious code worse? He mentioned permutation scanning, flash worms, metaserver worms, topological worms, can contagion worms as subjects for worry. He wondered if botnets were built because spammers pay for them, and pointed to a paper to be published at Worm 2003 called "Access for Sale" by S. Schecter and M. Smith.
- Arno Wagner of the DDoSVaX project spoke about using NetFlow records for analyzing malicious code. (Incidentally, I finally found an open source NetFlow collector in the FreeBSD net ports tree -- fprobe! I've tried it with EHNT (also in the tree) and will fire up flow-tools next.)
- The presenter of "Characterizing the Performance of Network Intrusion Detection Sensors" (.pdf), was absolutely hammered by the attendees. He was attacked for his methodology and results, particularly that the NICs he used to test Snort performance may have been the real bottleneck. Since he used a TAP to collect data I asked if he combined streams. He said he ran Snort against only one output. Since most real-world deployments care about both sides of the conversation, his choice wasn't realisitc.
- The paper "Using Decision
Trees to Improve Signature-based Intrusion Detection" (.ps) introduced me to Snort NG, which claims better performance than Snort 2.0 using the Snort 1.x code as a base.
- After the talks I spoke with Brian Hernacki of Symantec, who told me about ManHunt's ability to work with a switch to change the SPAN port it monitors. This idea of sampling traffic is a great one.
Well, that's my RAID wrap-up. I don't intend to return again, but I do plan to check the future programs and read the papers that interest me.
Update: 5th Anniversary of "FloodNet"
Five years ago today Wired reported on FloodNet. It was an attempt by a group called the Electronic Disturbance Theater to overwhelm Web sites, among them the Pentagon. It's significant because, according to the Wired article, the Pentagon took countermeasures:
"Participants in the FloodNet protest needed only to load the FloodNet Web page. The page contained a Java applet configured to request and load the three target Web sites every three seconds. The Electronic Disturbance Theater estimated that up to 10,000 people took part in the demonstration, delivering 600,000 hits to each of the three Web sites per minute.
The automated rapid-fire requests are designed to overwhelm the target Web sites so they cannot be viewed by their intended audience, known as a 'denial of service' attack.
The Pentagon's Web-site support team apparently struck back with a Java applet of its own. That applet sensed requests from the FloodNet servers, and loaded -- and reloaded -- an empty browser window on the attacker's desktop. The move forced the protesters to reboot their computers."
Sunday, September 07, 2003
"You should continue to detect intrusions. However, you shouldn't invest in stand-alone, network-based intrusion detection systems (IDSs)... by 2006, most enterprises will perform intrusion detection as part of firewall processing with next-generation firewalls... There have been enough advances in algorithms and high-speed network security processors to enable next-generation firewalls to perform network intrusion detection and blocking at all layers of the protocol stack. Mature products will ship in 2005... Purchase security management products - see "CIO Update: Gartner's IT Security Management Magic Quadrant Lacks a Leader," - to perform IDS alarm data reduction and correlation to firewall and vulnerability assessment logs, or outsource IDS monitoring to managed security service providers... Gartner has published a new report that includes material on intrusion detection and prevention, "Securing the Enterprise: The Latest Strategies and Technologies for Building a Safe Architecture."
My advocacy of Network Security Monitoring makes me agree that "stand-alone" NIDS aren't sufficient. However, Gartner's logic makes no sense. Essentially they are saying firewalls shipping in 2005 or 2006 will be sufficiently advanced to perform the IDS detection functions of today. In 2 or 3 years IDS will also have advanced, so what's the difference? The bottom line is Gartner continues to make waves in order to sell their pricey reports to scared CIOs facing regulatory and customer pressure.
Saturday, September 06, 2003
Slides on NSM Webcasts Posted
IT Security Hottest Job
"The post of chief privacy officer just got the nod for the highest-paying hot job, bringing in an average salary of $122,360. An IT manager or security manager came in ninth on the list of high-paying hot jobs with an average salary of $91,470.
Security is simply hot this year. The security industry came in second, just behind preventative health care, for the hottest industry of this year and next.
Security and IT managers are earning salaries of more than $91,000, according to the report. And a survey of top corporate information systems security executives for Fortune 500 companies found that the average overall compensation level was $237,000."
$237,000? What are those guys doing to justify that sort of salary? Running vulnerable Windows boxes? :)


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No Budget Film School Presents "Cinema Language: The Art of Storytelling"
No Budget Film School
Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 6:00 PM (PDT)
No Budget Film School Presents
"Cinema Language: The Art of Storytelling"
Saturday & Sunday, August 27 & 28, 2016 • 9:00am - 6:00pm
Raleigh Studios • Chaplin Theater
5300 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038
"As a film editor, I am in constant search of ways to grow my art. Tom Provost's brilliant dissection of every aspect of story telling for the screen opened me to a new and greater understanding of my craft, and the filmmaking process as a whole. I highly recommend this weekend to filmmaking professionals and newcomers alike." - Sean Albertson, A.C.E (Warrior, Rocky Balboa, The Killing Season, Rambo)
"If you're in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend attending this series of classes. Brought to you by two excellent filmmakers and instructors, Mark Stolaroff and Tom Provost, you really can't go wrong." - Huffington Post
No Budget Film School presents "Cinema Language," four terrific courses rolled into a single weekend. "Cinema Language" is an intensive and highly entertaining exploration of the narrative art of cinema. The kind of instruction usually found only in expensive film schools, "Cinema Language" is a practical exploration of how to get the most out of your story, independent of budget.
After taking this course, you will:
"Our ability to successfully produce a feature film can be traced directly back to what we learned at No Budget Film School and the follow-on Cinema Language weekend. They provided valuable insight into making a low-budget film, and, more importantly, inspired us to do it. Great investment of time and money!" - Ron and Wayne Jackson, Producers of 5 Hour Friends
"Cinema Language" is taught by award-winning filmmaker and Pepperdine University Graduate Screenwriting professor Tom Provost, writer/director of the award-winning Lionsgate feature The Presence, as well as the upcoming features Orpheus, Mr. Clark and Exile (see bio below). The classes will be held on August 27th & 28th at Raleigh Studios' Chaplin Theater, 9am to 6pm. Single day tickets are also available for each day. Tuition includes complimentary refreshments and class materials.
"Every producer should take your classes before taking on a film. These classes are beneficial not just for writers or directors but for anyone who works with or has a love for movies." - Andy Henderson
"This was an excellent class. It is very rare that you can talk to a filmmaker so openly about every aspect of production and really delve into the film. Especially one who has so much knowledge of film as Tom does." - Alden Anderson
"Cinema Language" is being taught alongside Mark Stolaroff's famed no-budget filmmaking class "The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking," which takes place the weekend prior, August 20-21. You can take each class separately, or together and save. For more information on "Cinema Language," see below. For more information on "The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking," visit the Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking Eventbrite page. The two weekend, four-day bundle can be purchased on this page or on the Art & Science page. **Attendees to both weekends will get a free 30 minute consultation from either Mark Stolaroff or Tom Provost.
No Budget Film School has partnered with Write Brothers to bring you an incredible offer: all registered attendees will receive Movie Magic Screenwriter software absolutely FREE! (a $250 total value!). And we'll be raffling off some goodies, too. (see below for details)
"Cinema Language"
Course 103: "Mastering Visual Storytelling"
"You gave me a whole new appreciation for visual storytelling. Your presentations will forever have an impact on my own writing and storytelling." - Joe Coddington
How often have you seen a friend's indie feature and thought, 'Wow...that was...not good." It's every filmmaker's nightmare. Yet people make bad or mediocre features, on any budget, all the time. "Mastering Visual Storytelling" is an in-depth, entertaining intensive on the specific strengths of the motion picture medium enabling you to craft the best movie possible on any budget.
"Mastering Visual Storytelling" explores how our best filmmakers expertly use the grammar of cinema to create the most effective and moving stories. Instructor Provost will give practical, hands-on specifics regarding the language of cinema: framing, editing, lighting, color, sound, POV, music, sound effects, etc--all will be covered. With over 100 clips and stills, the class will illustrate and illuminate how to use the grammar of film to the best effect possible. Whatever your area of expertise on set or off, "Mastering Visual Storytelling" will expand your knowledge of the craft of filmmaking and elevate your next feature to another level. You will learn not only basics but how to turn classical film grammar on its head to great effect.
After taking this course, you will:
Suggested Homework Assignment
Watch All That Jazz (1979 dir. Bob Fosse); Notorious (1946 dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Course 104: "Introducing Your Character"
"You have unique insight on form and character that I will incorporate into my own directing. And the class was extremely entertaining." - Julie Cohen
One of the most difficult things to do in any kind of story is quickly and efficiently set up a character...and in a manner that pays off further into the narrative. "Introducing Your Character" is an in-depth, intensive and entertaining look at how filmmakers effectively reveal characters to the audience, whether in a straightforward or purposely misleading fashion.
In this class we will watch and discuss a variety of clips from over ten hit movies such as The Dark Knight, Erin Brockovich, and The Devil Wears Prada, as well as John Dahl's retro thriller Red Rock West, to explore numerous ways you can provide fast, compelling and incisive information to your audience, even in a single line or shot. In the words of Instructor Provost, "This is a kick-ass class."
After taking this course, you will:
Suggested Homework Assignment
Watch Red Rock West (1993, dir. John Dahl)
Course 105: "Disclosure of Information"
"The information you presented was just incredible. It will have a profound effect on how I approach my own stories." - Alice Garcia
"Disclosure of Information" is the essence of what we do. It's the single most important aspect of storytelling and affects every single position on a film, in production and post. Every single choice you make reveals information to the audience. How to do it, when to do it, why to do it, as well as what the effect will be on your audience--all are determined by the manner in which you disclose each and every piece of information in a script.
While the entire Cinema Language weekend in essence is an exploration of how to disclose information, this class looks in-depth at the myriad choices a filmmaker has--right and wrong--and how to master those choices to create the most effective experience for the audience possible. Clips from various films such as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Carrie will be used, as well as intensive explorations of two Hitchcock classics, North by Northwest and Psycho.
After taking this course, you will:
Suggested Homework Assignment
Watch North By Northwest and Psycho (1959/1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Course 204: "From Script to Screen"
"The most innovative ghost story I've ever seen...Tom Provost gives a clinic on storytelling through a lens of a camera." - Bruce Kooken (review of The Presence for HorrorNews.net)
"Aesthetically riveting. Without a doubt one of the most unique genre entries to be released this year." - Joseph Airdo (review of The Presence for the Phoenix Daily News)
"Exuding a sinister serenity that brings to mind Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining,' 'The Presence' is one of those films that linger with you days after viewing." - Nathan Page (review of The Presence for the Cleveland Plain Dealer)
"From Script To Screen" is an extremely frank and revealing discussion about the realities every filmmaker faces whatever the budget, offering filmmakers a rare insider's look at just how a movie comes to fruition. Writer/Director Provost discusses the process of traveling from script to final edited product of his feature The Presence, which stars Oscar Winner Mira Sorvino, Golden Globe Nominee Justin Kirk and Shane West. The independently produced feature was acquired by Lionsgate after a successful festival run. This is a candid, insightful dissection of the filmmaking process, examining a recently-completed feature that was chosen as the opening or closing night film at a variety of festivals, winning various Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematographer awards as well. Students will read the first act of the screenplay as homework before attending the class, and then watch the complete film.
Following the screening, Provost will cover extensively how he and his creative team worked to bring what was on paper to life, given the typical compromises and considerations of budget, time, personnel issues, weather, and planning. Particular focus will be placed on what "went wrong" on the set, as well as what changed from the script and why. The discussion will also include the "writing" that went on in the editing room as the film took shape and became something apart from the shooting script. Specific clips and production stills will be used to illustrate the various decisions made on the set and after.
Students will have an open forum with the filmmaker regarding their thoughts and questions on the movie and the filmmaking process.
After taking this course, you will:
Suggested Homework Assignment
Read the first 30 pages of The Presence
NOTE ON HOMEWORK: Once enrolled, students will receive the pages to read along with an email from Tom Provost. All of the movies suggested for viewing before the seminar are available on either Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Streaming, etc..
"A brilliant debut film...unlike anything you've ever seen...surprising at every turn." - DAIFF Daily News
"One of the best movies I've seen all year...a visual an audio feast." - Bitterbalcony.com
"Visually stunning...will have you talking for hours...it's awesome." - moviebuzzers.com
"Creates quite an impact...part Alfred Hitchcock, part Rod Sterling and, to some degree, Agatha Christie while delivering the creepy goods those names are known for." - goseetalk.com
"Your class on form and construction of image is of the utmost importance and, as a director, to say it affected my own work in a profound way would be an understatement." - Bill Garrett
"A very candid, humble, and talented guy! Loved the class!" - Bart Baggett
"I had such a good time!!! It was wonderful!" - Joy Young
For a taste of what this class is all about and to get you into the mood, check out this montage of film images--taken from the films covered in the class--put together by instructor Tom Povost:
Tom Provost has enjoyed a varied and successful career in the entertainment industry as an author, screenwriter, editor, director, producer, actor, and instructor. Before graduating from The University of Texas in Austin's prestigious Plan II honors program with an emphasis in film, he wrote and directed several shorts and authored a published thesis on director Alfred Hitchcock. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. After landing several parts in film and TV, including a recurring role on Steven Spielberg's SeaQuest DSV, Provost took up editing, learning the Avid system just as non-linear editing was beginning to make its way on the scene. After editing short films and a couple of features, he worked for several years cutting and producing award winning promos for the WB and Bravo Television Networks.
During this time he was hired to adapt a script for Morgan Freeman's production company, Revelations, a screenplay eventually made into the film Under Suspicion starring Freeman and Gene Hackman, directed by Stephen Hopkins. The screenplay was nominated for an Edgar Award. This lead to work as a script doctor, where his ability to shape story has been highly prized. Provost's feature directorial debut The Presence, which he also wrote, was released by Lionsgate Films in Fall 2011. The inventive ghost story/modern-day gothic romance stars Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Shane West (ER), Golden Globe Nominee Justin Kirk (Weeds), and Tony Curan (Pearl Harbor, Gladiator). He is attached to direct three upcoming films, Orpheus, Mr. Clark and Exile. In addition to directing commercials and editing reality TV (The Bachelor, The Apprentice [Emmy nominated], and several others), Provost has been a popular film instructor at a variety of venues all over the country for many years.
A graduate professor of Screenwriting at Pepperdine University in Malibu, you can read some of Provost's writing at his blog: onfoodandfilm.com
Move Magic Screenwriter is the best screenplay formatting software, an industry standard, and the choice of Hollywood professionals. Screenwriter formats while you write so you can focus on what you're writing, not where it goes on the page. It also formats for television, stage, novels and comic book scripts so you've got it all in one package for any story you want to write. With a massive set of features designed to make the rewriting process fast and simple you can get from FADE IN: to FADE OUT effortlessly. Developed by writers for writers, Write Brothers is the first and ony creative team ever to receive a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for screenwriting software. All Cinema Language attendees get this terrific product FREE just for registering.
Significant discounts are available to attendees who pay before the end of day August 13th. Further discounts are available to students, (both former No Budget Film School students and all other students with a valid Student I.D.). All tickets at the door for the 2-day class are $300, ($175 for a single day). Tuition includes complimentary refreshments and class materials.
Can't make the class? For more information on future classes and to sign up for the No-Budget Newsletter, please visit:
For more information on Tom Provost's Cinema Language class and his consulting, please visit:
NO BUDGET FILM SCHOOL is a unique series of classes specifically designed to help the NO-BUDGET filmmaker, whether he or she is working with a budget of $200,000 or $2,000. The lessons, tools, and techniques gained from these courses are intended to maximize very limited resources and minimize critical errors that can doom otherwise worthy projects.
In order to purchase these tickets in installments, you'll need an Eventbrite account. Log in or sign up for a free account to continue.


text:
Harsha Vardhan
I work to TeachTheWeb
Heavily passionate about the concept of Open Source. Enthusiastic to work for FOSS projects. Fascinated about Augmented Reality. Taking up the initiatives, Standing up for social issues, and Making a road map for a confused crowd matters me a lot. Fair marketer, ensuring benefits at both the user and producer ends. A potential leader who decentralizes the power impartially by being Honest at heart and Optimist at thought. My core principle is to respect, support and help the fellow individual. I give importance to human relationships. I am an ambivert
Tagsarmy of awesome, community engagement, community management, firefox support, local marketing, localization, marketing, mozilla india, mozillian, speaker, thunderi, repsmozfest2014, community builders, firefoxos, creative, techspeakers
技能communications, community building, localization, market research, product marketing, python
語言英文, 印地文, 坦米爾文, 泰盧固文
- Facebook: harsha.vardhan.50364592
- Skype: harsha777vardhan
- Mozilla Support: harsha171993
- Twitter: harsha171993
Chandan Kumar Baba
He is one of awesome mozillian who is contributing in different areas such like Web QA, Webmaker and User engagement. Apart from this he is one of initiator of kidzilla event. I feel great to vouch him.
Umesh Agarwal
Aweosme is the word which can describe him better!! Keep Rocking !
Harsha being an Opensource enthusiast, had been contributing to Mozilla for more than an year. It's my pleasure to vouch him!


text:
John McClusky
Industrial Design
MA, Computer Graphics and Cognitive Systems Engineering, The Ohio State University, OH
John McClusky is an Industrial Designer and Professor of Industrial Design at San José State University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati and a Master's degree from The Ohio State University with specializations in Computer Graphics and Cognitive Systems Engineering. Professor McClusky has provided services in product design, design research, human factors consulting, and strategic planning. His clients have included Xerox and Fuji Xerox, Swingline/Acco Brands, Herman Miller, Proctor & Gamble, Whirlpool, Crown Equipment Corporation and Rio Digital Audio. His work has earned several awards including the IDEA Gold Award, the Red Dot for High Quality Design and the Good Design Award. In 1996, he was the first industrial designer to serve on the Arthritis Foundation Product Review Board evaluating products for the Arthritis Foundation Seal of Approval. In addition to his professional work, he has also developed curriculum and taught in the design programs at San José State University, Carnegie Mellon University and The Ohio State University.


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Martian Chess (used to be Lunar Chess) is a digital recreation of Andrew Looney's classic treehouse / icehouse game now on your iPad/iPhone!
Martian Chessby Neon Surge
A fun and challenging board game,similar to traditional chess, with a smaller board and much quicker game play. In Martian Chess, pieces on your side of the game board are always yours.
This is a two or four player (iPad only) game, any of which can be players or computers of varying difficulty locally or challenge someone to a two-player game over the internet! Network play works over wifi, 3g, or edge.
It's a game of attrition and position, of challenge and strategy.
If you play too offensively, your opponent can come right back at you with the piece you attacked him, for once you take their piece, your piece becomes theirs! But if you're too defensive your opponent can corner you. You must find the right balance.
If you'd like to buy or get more information about Andrew Looney's original game Martian Chess, please see http://lunarchess.com/looneylabs
Martian Chess is FREE and ad-supported, always and forever. If you loathe the advertisement there is an in-app purchase available to disable advertisements on all of your devices.
We hope you'll love and enjoy Martian Chess, please rate and review, and send us any feedback you have so we can make it better for you!
* The name Martian Chess is used with permission from Andrew Looney - http://looneylabs.com
* Music and audio provided by DJ Hologram - http://sonicmetamorphosis.com
Recent changes:
- Renamed to the original name of the game, Martian Chess! - Fixed bug in 4 player end of game score screen - Fixed 4 player turn rotation bug - Various other minor bug fixes
Package name
Rating: 3
243 ratings


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Pizza can be a Hatfields vs. McCoys kind of food, with aficionados of the deep-dish and thin-crust versions squaring off in heated arguments over which is better.
For that reason, pizza parlors often pick one version or the other and specialize. Blue Line Pizza, with outposts in Campbell and Burlingame, successfully plays both sides, offering deep-dish and thin-crust pizza on its menu.
Both versions start with the same crust. It crisps up nicely on the outside, has distinct grains of corn meal in it and a sharp crunch when you bite into it. The soft, chewy interior is especially noticeable in the deep-dish version.
The thin-crust pepperoni pizza ($18.25 for an eight-slice large) had a mild tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese that stretched just enough without pulling off the slice, and a strong Parmesan cheese flavor that worked well with the spicy pepperoni. It came out at just the right temperature — hot, but not so hot that the first bite burned the roof of your mouth.
The deep-dish meatball pizza ($18.75 for a six-slice small) started with the crust, then a layer of mozzarella, which kept the crust from getting soggy, then spinach, mushrooms, red bell peppers, meatball pieces, the same tomato sauce and dollops of ricotta cheese on top. One small disappointment was the absence of whole meatballs.
If I order a deep-dish meatball pizza, I want to see whole meatballs (in an ideal world, they'd be as big as my head). With Blue Line's version, I had to hunt around for pieces of meatball. Because of the lack of whole meatballs, as well as the prominent spinach and ricotta flavors, I ended up thinking of it as more of an open-faced lasagna on a pizza crust.
The meatball appetizer ($7) was a different story. Here were six spicy meatballs smothered in red sauce and chunks of Roma tomato, then covered in mozzarella cheese with fresh basil sprinkled on top. The flavor of the meatballs was outstanding, with the basil adding just the right accent.
The Caesar salad was another strong item. It had homemade croutons and shaved Parmesan cheese, and each bite-sized piece of lettuce was coated with the perfect amount of garlicky dressing.
At lunch, Blue Line serves personal-sized pizzas and paninis. The very tasty turkey, pesto, bacon and Swiss panini ($7.95) tasted strongly of bacon, pesto and Swiss cheese. The bread was perfectly toasted, giving every bite a satisfying crunch.
Blue Line offers two dessert choices: chocolate decadence brownie wedges and an open-faced gelato sandwich ($5.95 each). I tried the gelato sandwich; while the vanilla bean gelato was very good, the fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie was hard and crumbly. Part of it ended up on the floor when I tried to cut it with my fork.
If you haven't filled up on pizza at Blue Line and are craving something sweet, I would recommend walking down Campbell Avenue for either frozen custard or cupcakes.
Blue Line has a light, airy atmosphere with walls of glass. It attracts a lively crowd at night, but one that's definitely more mature than the early and mid-20s crowd you find at other downtown Campbell establishments. You are much more likely to see a stroller at Blue Line than a sorority sweatshirt.
So if you find yourself in a mixed crowd or relationship, where some of you are thin crusters and others forever deep dish, Blue Line Pizza is a place where you can both go and be satisfied.
Blue Line Pizza
415 E. Campbell Ave.,
1108 Burlingame Ave.,
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Types of food: Pizzas and paninis
Average meal price: $23
to $25 for a large pizza
Good choices: Pepperoni thin crust pizza, turkey panini, Caesar salad
Not recommended: The open-faced gelato sandwich for dessert
Attitude: Lively and noisy
Amenities: Full bar, a couple of big-screen TVs
Vegetarian options: Vegetarian, vegan and
gluten-free options
Drinks: Pepsi products, plus an extensive selection of beers, both bottled and on tap
Eat in car: Thin crust? Sure. Deep dish? Not so much.
Next-day edibility: Good
Who goes there: Families, plus a slightly older downtown Campbell crowd
Credit cards: All major ones
Parking: A small lot, 10 spaces or so, plus street parking
Restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously. The Mercury News pays for all meals.